It’s no secret that it has been a longtime wish of Paul Clarke, Head of Delegation for Australia at the (Junior) Eurovision Song Contest, to see the Australian entry being chosen through a national final.

Australian media are now reporting that an Australian national final is on its way, titled: Eurovision: Australia Decides.

The event will be held on the 9th of February next year and will take place in the city of Gold Coast, whose bid was victorious over those of Sydney and Melbourne!
The venue for the national final will be the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Broadcaster SBS and TV production company Blink TV will work on this together and they will compile a shortlist of songs, which will be paired up with interested artists.
Just like at Eurovision, there will be a jury rehearsal the night before where the jury in question will base their votes on. These will account for 50%, with the other half coming from the televoters on the night of February 9 itself.

Paul Clarke, from Blink TV itself, has already said they are planning on making Gold Coast, Eurovision Central in February 2019!

Composers and lyricist that are interested, can submit their songs to SBS until the closing deadline on the 4th of November.

In 2018, Australia were represented by Jessica Mauboy with ‘We Got Love’:

But who would you want to see in that national final next year, who’d maybe even win it and represent Australia in Tel Aviv?
Let us know in the comments below!

My earliest Eurovision memory is "Hemel en Aarde" representing us in 1998. The first edition I saw in full was 2005 in Kyiv and funny enough the first Eurovision I went to was 2017 in Kyiv as well! A wonderful and unique experience.
To me the most beautiful entry ever is 'Lejla' in 2006 and the best winning song 'Euphoria', but ‘1944’ is a close second!